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| The new Elizabethan age: the arts, architecture, fashion and technology | The new Elizabethan age: the arts, architecture, fashion and technology |
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| The arts: a golden age for British culture By Melissa Denes | The arts: a golden age for British culture By Melissa Denes |
| Elizabeth II's coronation was the first to be televised. Winston Churchill advised against it, but the Princess was keen. Did she have any idea how central a role television would play in her reign? Probably not, and an eternity of Royal Variety Performances is perhaps not the legacy she wants to hand down to her successors. But TV has become the dominant art form: its audiences are vast; it's an elastic, democratic medium that can do straight, silly, satirical, heart-breaking. It's also an astonishing archive: Michael Apted's 7 Up will be watched in 2212, when Simon Cowell's shows are barely remembered. | Elizabeth II's coronation was the first to be televised. Winston Churchill advised against it, but the Princess was keen. Did she have any idea how central a role television would play in her reign? Probably not, and an eternity of Royal Variety Performances is perhaps not the legacy she wants to hand down to her successors. But TV has become the dominant art form: its audiences are vast; it's an elastic, democratic medium that can do straight, silly, satirical, heart-breaking. It's also an astonishing archive: Michael Apted's 7 Up will be watched in 2212, when Simon Cowell's shows are barely remembered. |
| The second Elizabethan age has brought us rock'n'roll, punk, standup comedy, computer games, YouTube, ebooks, digital photography. Our culture is less split between high and low. We are more visual than verbal, although the enduring images of our era may turn out to be news photographs rather than anything by Lucian Freud or Tracey Emin: of 9/11, Abu Ghraib or Gaddafi in a meat locker. | The second Elizabethan age has brought us rock'n'roll, punk, standup comedy, computer games, YouTube, ebooks, digital photography. Our culture is less split between high and low. We are more visual than verbal, although the enduring images of our era may turn out to be news photographs rather than anything by Lucian Freud or Tracey Emin: of 9/11, Abu Ghraib or Gaddafi in a meat locker. |
| The first Elizabethans gave us drama. We haven't produced a Shakespeare, but we have produced Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Sarah Kane, Roy Williams and Jez Butterworth. Have any of them pervaded our culture – the way we dress, think, interact – as profoundly as the Beatles, David Bowie or the Sex Pistols? Arguably not: rock'n'roll stakes a big claim to being the transformative art form, with the Brits (in an Anglophone world) key players. | The first Elizabethans gave us drama. We haven't produced a Shakespeare, but we have produced Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Sarah Kane, Roy Williams and Jez Butterworth. Have any of them pervaded our culture – the way we dress, think, interact – as profoundly as the Beatles, David Bowie or the Sex Pistols? Arguably not: rock'n'roll stakes a big claim to being the transformative art form, with the Brits (in an Anglophone world) key players. |
| Our attention spans may be shot by overwork and social media, but we're still reading. The novel has steered a steady course, briefly bothered by modernism, and now shaken by digital publishing. (That revolution has only just begun; in the meantime, Hilary Mantel's 432-page portrait of Anne Boleyn is this summer's must-read.) The era is extraordinarily rich in children's literature: the work of Roald Dahl, JK Rowling and Julia Donaldson will be read – on whatever device – for centuries. | Our attention spans may be shot by overwork and social media, but we're still reading. The novel has steered a steady course, briefly bothered by modernism, and now shaken by digital publishing. (That revolution has only just begun; in the meantime, Hilary Mantel's 432-page portrait of Anne Boleyn is this summer's must-read.) The era is extraordinarily rich in children's literature: the work of Roald Dahl, JK Rowling and Julia Donaldson will be read – on whatever device – for centuries. |
| What will Elizabeth II's Britain be remembered for? For ceasing to be an island culture and embracing a thousand others. For being anxious, apocalyptic, nostalgic. For the work of Banksy, JG Ballard, Julie Christie, Zadie Smith. For a technological shift that has transformed the way we make and experience art. The bigger question might be: what will people forget, when it's all there, online for ever? | What will Elizabeth II's Britain be remembered for? For ceasing to be an island culture and embracing a thousand others. For being anxious, apocalyptic, nostalgic. For the work of Banksy, JG Ballard, Julie Christie, Zadie Smith. For a technological shift that has transformed the way we make and experience art. The bigger question might be: what will people forget, when it's all there, online for ever? |
| Architecture: the high rise of corporate Britain By Steve Rose | Architecture: the high rise of corporate Britain By Steve Rose |
| The first thing that the current era will be remembered for is the end of low-rise. When Queen Elizabeth came to throne, the tallest building in Britain was St Paul's Cathedral. Churches, castles and palaces had dominated Britain's skylines and architectural narratives for millennia, but now they have been superseded by a new typology: the corporate office tower. The Post Office tower was dazzlingly modern in the 1960s, as was the NatWest Tower, which the Queen opened in 1981. Now they are eclipsed by Canary Wharf and the Shard. Steel, glass and post-industrial labour define the age, though only a handful of examples will go down in architectural history – Norman Foster's Gherkin and Richard Rogers' Lloyds Building among them. | The first thing that the current era will be remembered for is the end of low-rise. When Queen Elizabeth came to throne, the tallest building in Britain was St Paul's Cathedral. Churches, castles and palaces had dominated Britain's skylines and architectural narratives for millennia, but now they have been superseded by a new typology: the corporate office tower. The Post Office tower was dazzlingly modern in the 1960s, as was the NatWest Tower, which the Queen opened in 1981. Now they are eclipsed by Canary Wharf and the Shard. Steel, glass and post-industrial labour define the age, though only a handful of examples will go down in architectural history – Norman Foster's Gherkin and Richard Rogers' Lloyds Building among them. |
| High-rise also came to domestic architecture. Elizabeth's coronation, just two years after the Festival of Britain, marked the beginning of the era when modern architecture really gained a foothold here. From the ruins of the blitz came concrete streets in the sky, planned housing estates, even whole new cities such as Milton Keynes. Some of those experiments will be judged as failures, but not all, and surely no less than the tracts of mass-produced brick shoe boxes that have become the alternative. When it comes to comparing our current style to Georgian or Edwardian, will the defining motifs be PVC window frames, patio doors, Juliet balconies and double garages? Or perhaps gated communities and pastiches of other eras, as favoured by her son Charles (who set out the stall for his own reign with the mock-classical Poundbury village). | High-rise also came to domestic architecture. Elizabeth's coronation, just two years after the Festival of Britain, marked the beginning of the era when modern architecture really gained a foothold here. From the ruins of the blitz came concrete streets in the sky, planned housing estates, even whole new cities such as Milton Keynes. Some of those experiments will be judged as failures, but not all, and surely no less than the tracts of mass-produced brick shoe boxes that have become the alternative. When it comes to comparing our current style to Georgian or Edwardian, will the defining motifs be PVC window frames, patio doors, Juliet balconies and double garages? Or perhaps gated communities and pastiches of other eras, as favoured by her son Charles (who set out the stall for his own reign with the mock-classical Poundbury village). |
| Will future historians simply look back on this as a dark, confused age where style got muddled up and everyone preferred to watch reality TV shows about property rather than engage with the real thing? At least there's public architecture to put a better gloss on her majesty's reign: the Welsh and Scottish Assemblies, Tate Modern and other galleries, new bridges such as Gateshead and London's Millennium Bridge, the Channel Tunnel, the London Eye, the Eden Project. Even Victoria would be impressed by all that. | Will future historians simply look back on this as a dark, confused age where style got muddled up and everyone preferred to watch reality TV shows about property rather than engage with the real thing? At least there's public architecture to put a better gloss on her majesty's reign: the Welsh and Scottish Assemblies, Tate Modern and other galleries, new bridges such as Gateshead and London's Millennium Bridge, the Channel Tunnel, the London Eye, the Eden Project. Even Victoria would be impressed by all that. |
| Fashion: why the slogan T-shirt says it all By Jess Cartner-Morley | Fashion: why the slogan T-shirt says it all By Jess Cartner-Morley |
| The second Elizabethan age has not been without fashion moments. We have had the miniskirt and the minicrini; flower power and power dressing; punk and grunge; Twiggy and Kate Moss. From Mary Quant to Ossie Clarke, Vivienne Westwood to Alexander McQueen, the most groundbreaking designers have emerged from the British fashion scene. And from Carnaby Street in the 1960s to Glastonbury in the 2000s, the Queen's country has led the world in street fashion. | The second Elizabethan age has not been without fashion moments. We have had the miniskirt and the minicrini; flower power and power dressing; punk and grunge; Twiggy and Kate Moss. From Mary Quant to Ossie Clarke, Vivienne Westwood to Alexander McQueen, the most groundbreaking designers have emerged from the British fashion scene. And from Carnaby Street in the 1960s to Glastonbury in the 2000s, the Queen's country has led the world in street fashion. |
| But the garment that most defines what has changed in fashion in the past 60 years isn't chic at all. If one piece of clothing epitomises what fashion means now, it is the slogan T-shirt. From 58% Don't Want Pershing to Frankie Says Relax, from Just Do It to J'Adore Dior: the slogans of the era's iconic T-shirts are a potted history of pop culture. Sixty years ago, the slogan T-shirt simply didn't exist; now, there is one in most wardrobes. (Before you declare yourself above the fray: what about that Gap T-shirt you wear to the gym?) | But the garment that most defines what has changed in fashion in the past 60 years isn't chic at all. If one piece of clothing epitomises what fashion means now, it is the slogan T-shirt. From 58% Don't Want Pershing to Frankie Says Relax, from Just Do It to J'Adore Dior: the slogans of the era's iconic T-shirts are a potted history of pop culture. Sixty years ago, the slogan T-shirt simply didn't exist; now, there is one in most wardrobes. (Before you declare yourself above the fray: what about that Gap T-shirt you wear to the gym?) |
| Before 1952, thanks to the weight of rules and conventions governing the clothes appropriate for social status, occupation and gender – not to mention the now-forgotten power of parents over teenagers and ration books over everybody – the sartorial freedom we take for granted nowadays was unheard of. The fashion revolution began with teddy boys and grew with the youthquake of the 60s. Clothes became a mode of self-expression far more than ever before. And as those teenagers grew up, they never lost that approach to fashion. | Before 1952, thanks to the weight of rules and conventions governing the clothes appropriate for social status, occupation and gender – not to mention the now-forgotten power of parents over teenagers and ration books over everybody – the sartorial freedom we take for granted nowadays was unheard of. The fashion revolution began with teddy boys and grew with the youthquake of the 60s. Clothes became a mode of self-expression far more than ever before. And as those teenagers grew up, they never lost that approach to fashion. |
| Fashion has always been about communication, and the slogan T-shirt is the sartorial representation of how communication has changed. We are less interested in listening to received wisdom (whether these be dress codes or expert analysis of the world around us) and more interested in telling the world what we think (by wearing a slogan T-shirt or by posting our views on Facebook). The irony is that, with all this newfound freedom to express ourselves, the most popular T-shirt slogans are those sold to us. Just Do It, the Nike slogan, is an individualist philosophy sold back to the masses in cookie-cutter form with an inflated price tag. In the last decade, as fashion has taken an ever more central position in pop culture, slogans have become increasingly self-referential: think of Carrie Bradshaw wearing a J'Adore Dior T-shirt in Sex and the City, and the designer name-dropping T-shirts with which Henry Holland made his name at London fashion week. | Fashion has always been about communication, and the slogan T-shirt is the sartorial representation of how communication has changed. We are less interested in listening to received wisdom (whether these be dress codes or expert analysis of the world around us) and more interested in telling the world what we think (by wearing a slogan T-shirt or by posting our views on Facebook). The irony is that, with all this newfound freedom to express ourselves, the most popular T-shirt slogans are those sold to us. Just Do It, the Nike slogan, is an individualist philosophy sold back to the masses in cookie-cutter form with an inflated price tag. In the last decade, as fashion has taken an ever more central position in pop culture, slogans have become increasingly self-referential: think of Carrie Bradshaw wearing a J'Adore Dior T-shirt in Sex and the City, and the designer name-dropping T-shirts with which Henry Holland made his name at London fashion week. |
| It was at the end of the first Elizabethan age that Shakespeare's Iago said: "I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at." At the end of the second Elizabethan age, we wear our brands on our chests instead. Is this progress, I wonder? | It was at the end of the first Elizabethan age that Shakespeare's Iago said: "I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at." At the end of the second Elizabethan age, we wear our brands on our chests instead. Is this progress, I wonder? |
| Technology: a recurring story of genius hampered by poor business sense By Charles Arthur | Technology: a recurring story of genius hampered by poor business sense By Charles Arthur |
| Harold Wilson's "white heat of technology" speech in 1963, 11 years into the new Elizabethan age, may have struck some as overblown. Us? This soggy nation, running a furnace of innovation? The truth is, though, Britain's contribution to the world of technology is easily overlooked, because we have been so bad at exploiting it. | Harold Wilson's "white heat of technology" speech in 1963, 11 years into the new Elizabethan age, may have struck some as overblown. Us? This soggy nation, running a furnace of innovation? The truth is, though, Britain's contribution to the world of technology is easily overlooked, because we have been so bad at exploiting it. |
| Consider the unravelling in 1953 of the double helix structure of DNA by (America's) James Watson and (Britain's) Francis Crick, with the too-often unsung help of Rosalind Franklin, who did the x-ray diffraction work. The UK has done sterling work in the field of biotechnology. Monoclonal antibodies were first made at the Medical Research Council labs; they are now widely used for diagnostic tests and treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis). However, the discovery wasn't patented because the government scientist who reviewed the discovery couldn't see any "immediate practical applications". | Consider the unravelling in 1953 of the double helix structure of DNA by (America's) James Watson and (Britain's) Francis Crick, with the too-often unsung help of Rosalind Franklin, who did the x-ray diffraction work. The UK has done sterling work in the field of biotechnology. Monoclonal antibodies were first made at the Medical Research Council labs; they are now widely used for diagnostic tests and treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis). However, the discovery wasn't patented because the government scientist who reviewed the discovery couldn't see any "immediate practical applications". |
| Then there is computing, where Britain has made a colossal difference, but had little visibility. Time-sharing computers, which use the power of one big machine and parcel it out, a few microseconds at a time, to multiple users, are familiar to us now – ever used webmail? – came through the work of many engineers, including the late Roger Needham, whose other work on computer security underpins so much of what we do online.And in an age where people are proud of instructing their phones or games consoles by voice, it was Britain which in 1983 had the first car, the Austin Maestro, that talked to you. Audaciously, it told then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to "belt up" - though sadly that was just an instruction about seat belts. There's also the little matter of a scientist called Tim Berners-Lee, who, while working on a big particle collider project, decided to give researchers an easier way to link to and read papers on the internet. He thought of it as a "web" of documents; we know his invention now as the world wide web. He intentionally didn't patent it, though doing so could have made him rich. A few years later, a team in Cambridge led the decoding of the human genome and the 30,000 genes or so in our DNA. Their aim was to do it quickly enough that it couldn't be patented by a rival American researcher. | Then there is computing, where Britain has made a colossal difference, but had little visibility. Time-sharing computers, which use the power of one big machine and parcel it out, a few microseconds at a time, to multiple users, are familiar to us now – ever used webmail? – came through the work of many engineers, including the late Roger Needham, whose other work on computer security underpins so much of what we do online.And in an age where people are proud of instructing their phones or games consoles by voice, it was Britain which in 1983 had the first car, the Austin Maestro, that talked to you. Audaciously, it told then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to "belt up" - though sadly that was just an instruction about seat belts. There's also the little matter of a scientist called Tim Berners-Lee, who, while working on a big particle collider project, decided to give researchers an easier way to link to and read papers on the internet. He thought of it as a "web" of documents; we know his invention now as the world wide web. He intentionally didn't patent it, though doing so could have made him rich. A few years later, a team in Cambridge led the decoding of the human genome and the 30,000 genes or so in our DNA. Their aim was to do it quickly enough that it couldn't be patented by a rival American researcher. |
| Do you feel the common thread? We are fantastic inventors, but tend to contribute without razor-sharp commercial instincts. We give the world technologies, and it laps them up. We like the heat of technology. Yet we tend to stay out of its kitchen. It's the British way. | Do you feel the common thread? We are fantastic inventors, but tend to contribute without razor-sharp commercial instincts. We give the world technologies, and it laps them up. We like the heat of technology. Yet we tend to stay out of its kitchen. It's the British way. |
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